HORSE RACING / BILL CHRISTINE : Safety Vests Worth Weight in Gold

For John Giovanni, Jan. 1, 1994 can’t come soon enough. That’s the date when at least 27 states, including California, will make it mandatory that jockeys ride with safety vests.

Earlier this year, when Giovanni, national manager of the Jockeys’ Guild, thought that the battle over such vests won, the Assn. of Racing Commissioners International, was revising the model racing rules that all states are asked to follow. Somehow, the reference to the safety vests got changed from mandatory to optional .

“To say that I was irate when I saw that language would have been an understatement,” Giovanni said from his office in Lexington, Ky. Giovanni, whose riding career ended in 1981, estimates that he sat out about three years’ worth of racing while recuperating from injuries.

In England, safety vests were made mandatory in 1991. The Jockeys’ Guild recommended in 1992 that the vests be made mandatory in the United States. But some of Giovanni’s members resisted the vests.

“They said they were hot, some of them said that they were uncomfortable to wear,” Giovanni said. “But this isn’t a beauty contest. This is something that will save lives.”

On Aug. 30, the last day of the Saratoga meeting, Julie Krone fell in a race and was trampled by another horse. She suffered a mangled right ankle, which has required 14 screws and two operations to repair, and doctors said she could have been killed when the horse kicked her directly above the heart.

She was wearing a safety vest.

Krone, 30, is racing’s most accomplished female rider, having won 2,762 races and more than $53 million in purses. This year, she won the Belmont Stakes with Colonial Affair, becoming the first woman to win a Triple Crown race. Krone said that she had been wearing a vest for about two years, mainly because Jerry Bailey, a jockey she respects, started wearing one. Bailey is president of the Jockey’s Guild.

“While she was sitting up on the track, a horse slammed into her chest,” one of Krone’s doctors said. “It’s hard to say if it would have been a mortal wound without the vest, but there’s a good chance she wouldn’t be here now if she hadn’t worn it.”

Many states, including California and New York, will not count the two pounds the vests weigh as part of a jockey’s weight. In England, the weight of the vests was added to the jockey’s weight.

“Riders who couldn’t make the assigned weight because of the extra two pounds were pulling the stuffing out of the jackets,” Giovanni said. “They were defeating the purpose of even wearing the jackets.”

Several companies manufacture the vests, which cost between $125 and $200. Giovanni said that when jockeys wear individual vests, they have a tendency to become molded in the shape of their torsos, making them less cumbersome.

The California Horse Racing Board announced in August that the vests would become mandatory on Jan. 1. The Oak Tree Racing Assn., sponsor of the Santa Anita race meeting that will include the Breeders’ Cup races on Nov. 6, is buying 14 vests for jockeys who don’t have their own.

“We’re very concerned about the safety of all racing participants,” said Sherwood Chillingworth, executive vice president of Oak Tree. “Our concerns are magnified by the fact that the Breeders’ Cup is an international event and will be televised worldwide. We hope that the jockeys will respond to our encouragement by agreeing to wear the vests voluntarily.”

In the 1990 Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Belmont Park, Go For Wand broke down in the stretch and was destroyed on the track. The filly’s jockey, Randy Romero, suffered eight broken ribs and a broken collarbone. Last year at Gulfstream Park, Lester Piggott’s mount in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, Mr Brooks, was also destroyed after breaking down, and England’s premier jockey, five days short of his 57th birthday, suffered broken ribs, a broken collarbone and a partially collapsed lung.

Horse Racing

Laffit Pincay isn’t at the Meadowlands and Fairplex Park very often, but the 46-year-old jockey visited both tracks during the weekend. On Friday night, Pincay was at the Meadowlands, riding Diazo to victory in the $250,000 Pegasus Handicap. On Sunday, after Fairplex honored Pincay for riding his 8,000th winner, he was aboard Campo Marzio for his victory in the $50,000 C.B. Afflerbaugh Stakes. Next Saturday, Pincay will be at Louisiana Downs to ride Devoted Brass in the $750,000 Super Derby. Starting in 1981, Pincay won the Super Derby three out of four years, with Island Whirl, Sunny’s Halo and Gate Dancer.

With Pat Day unable to ride because of an illness in the family, Duane Kutz took over Sunday at Turfway Park and rode Gray Cashmere to a seven-length victory in the $175,000 Turfway Budweiser Breeders’ Cup Stakes. Deputation finished second, a half-length in front of November Snow, the 3-5 favorite.

For the record: It was incorrectly reported Friday that Team Valor spent $175,000 to acquire Star Of Cozzene. The price was $125,000. . . . Sea Hero, winner of the Kentucky Derby and the Travers, will be sidelined for the rest of the year because of a knee injury. He was winless in seven other starts this year, most recently running third in the Molson Export Million.

Spirited Susan, second in a stake at Fairplex a week ago, has Mama Simba and seven others to beat in today’s Bangles and Beads Stakes. Mama Simba won the stake in 1991. . . . Gundaghia will try to win the Governor’s Cup for the third consecutive time when the 6 1/2-furlong stake is run Tuesday at Fairplex.